BREAKING: Barbados sets date to remove Queen Elizabeth II as head of state

The time has come to fully leave the colonial past behind, the PM declares.

Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley stated that the Island country will remove Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state and declare a republic by November 2021.

In a written statement by Barbados Prime Minister, Mia Mottley read that, “its time to fully leave our colonial past behind.”

OnyxNews Nigeria reports that Mottley quoted the Caribbean island nation’s first premier Errol Barrow, who warned against “loitering on colonial premises”.

In the part of the country’s governor-general, Dame Sandra Mason in her remark said: “The time has come to fully leave our colonial past behind. Barbadians want a Barbadian head of state.

Barbados sets date to remove Queen Elizabeth II as head of state

“This is the ultimate statement of confidence in who we are and what we are capable of achieving.

“Hence, Barbados will take the next logical step toward full sovereignty and become a republic by the time we celebrate our 55th anniversary of independence.”

Queen Elizabeth II visit to Barbados in 1977.

Barbados gained its independence from Britain in 1966, but the Queen remains its constitutional monarch.

According to reports from UK, Barbados move to declare a republic has been in preparation for a long time.

In 1998 a Barbados constitutional review commission recommended republican status, and in 2015, the then-prime minister Freundel Stuart said: “We have to move from a monarchical system to a republican form of government in the very near future.”

Barbados made the decision towards independence from the UK in 2003 when it replaced the London-based Judicial Committee of the Privy Council with the Caribbean Court of Justice, located in Trinidad and Tobago’s Port of Spain, as its final court of appeal.

Most Caribbean countries have kept formal links with the British monarchy after achieving independence, but Barbados would join Trinidad and Tobago, Dominica and Guyana if it proceeded with its plan.

Similarly, Jamaican has also flagged such a transition, with prime minister Andrew Holness saying it is a priority of his government, but he has yet to achieve it.